Bowlsby introduced as Big 12 commissioner

Bob Bowlsby had heard the rumors. So even though he was flattered when Big 12 presidents contacted him about the possibility of becoming the conference's new commissioner, he wondered if he was interviewing for a temporary gig."I, like many people, had a vision of this conference as unstable," Bowlsby said. "I was very quickly put at ease."Friday, the former Stanford athletic director was officially introduced as the new leader of the Big 12, a league that lost a third of its original members in recent years but one Bowlsby says is now positioned to thrive.With West Virginia and TCU joining the conference this year to give it a 10-team membership, and with a lucrative new television deal in the works, Bowlsby said there's no reason to believe the Big 12 won't last."I think the Big 12 can do anything the Big 12 wants to do," Bowlsby said at a news conference at the Big 12 offices in Irving. "I think the world is our oyster."Bowlsby, 60, replaced interim commissioner Chuck Neinas, who took over when Dan Beebe was fired in the wake of the departures of Texas A&M and Missouri last September.In six seasons under Bowlsby, Stanford won 10 NCAA championships, and the Cardinal's football program became a national powerhouse, playing in two consecutive Bowl Championship Series games.Bowlsby's resume also includes 15 years as the athletic director at Iowa and tenures as chairman of multiple NCAA committees. He confirmed he signed a five-year contract to serve as Big 12 commissioner, a job he'll begin June 15.Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis, the chairman of the league's board of directors, said the choice of Bowlsby was an obvious one."We were looking for a leader we thought could take the Big 12 to the next level in this new era of college athletics," Hargis said.Whether that new era includes more realignment is yet to be determined. Bowlsby said he enters his new job "with no preconceived notions" about whether the Big 12 should remain at 10 teams or look to expand to 11 or 12, but that he expects to have plenty of conversations with the league's presidents about it."I think expansion is going to be an ongoing point of consideration for us," Bowlsby said. "I certainly am not going to presume a direction we're going to go."As for the perception that Texas wields an inordinate amount of power in the Big 12, Bowlsby said the acrimony that contributed to the exits of Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri and A&M "is in the past." A longtime friend of DeLoss Dodds, Bowlsby said he's found the Longhorns' athletic director and UT president Bill Powers to be "very team-oriented."Bowlsby scoffed at the idea of the commissioner's office being a mouthpiece for UT and Oklahoma, saying, "I haven't been very good at being a puppet over the years." But he didn't deny the Longhorns will have influence."The University of Texas is always going to be an 800-pound gorilla," Bowlsby said. "And that isn't going to change."mfinger@express-news.netTwitter: @mikefinger